Boat Talk: See when and what safety equipment is required on the lake

Cory Morse | MLive.comSusie Parker polishes her 48 foot boat called "Idyll Time" at North Shore Marina in Grand Haven this spring. Susie and her husband, Jeff Parker, are from Chattanooga, Tenn. "We love the Great Lakes," Jeff said. "It's kind of been our second home."

As we’re getting used to those frequent trips to the lake, it’s important to remember what materials to have on board before heading out on the water.

I’m not talking about just the cooler and stock of must-have snacks (although, nothing beats an ice-cream sandwich on a hot summer day). I’m talking about the fire extinguishers, life preservers, sound-producing devices and visual distress signals that are must-haves on many boats.

Welcome to this week’s edition of Boat Talk. The weekly column will run through Labor Day addressing boating safety issues and any questions you may have. Speaking of those—don’t be shy. If you find something happening out on the water that causes you to stop and wonder, email me at hfenton@mlive.com. We’ll get to the bottom of it.

But now — those must-have items.

I turned to Jim Kearns, a certified boating safety instructor with the Michigan DNR and United States Coast Guard to talk about what it takes to properly stock a boat with the right safety gear. Kearns regularly conducts vessel safety checks and offered some information for readers this week.

We started with a discussion of the United States Coast Guard’s vessel safety check-off sheet. Examiners run through these sheets with the owner of a boat, discussing requirements and recommendations for safe boating.

First off: Visual distress signals. Recreational boats at least 16 feet long used on Coast Guard waters or the Great Lakes must be equipped with a minimum of either three day and three night pyrotechnic devices or one day non-pyrotechnic device, like a flag, and one night device, like an SOS light. Boats less than 16 feet are required to carry only night visual distress signals when operating after dark.

Fire extinguishers are always a good item to have on board, but they are required under a few conditions.

• if the boat has an inboard engine
• when double-bottom hulls are not completely sealed or not completely filled with floatation materials.
• if there’s a closed living space
• if the boat has compartments containing flammable materials
• if the boat has a permanently-installed fuel tank

Wondering about that small fishing boat you like to slide onto a trailer and take out for a quick morning jaunt? If it’s less than 26 feet and propelled by an outboard motor, you are not required to have one—unless one of the above conditions applies.

Kearns also notes there’s more to this than just having the right number of fire extinguishers on board. If you can’t grab it quickly, it won’t be very useful in an emergency situation.

“We recommend they be mounted. They ought to be in places where they are readily accessible,” he says.

“Just because the law says you need two of them doesn’t mean you can’t do three or four.”

All boats also must carry a device capable of producing 4-second sound bite that can be heard for a half-mile. This could be a siren, a horn, or even a whistle. Boats longer than 39.4 feet also must have a bell.

“Too many people keep their life jackets behind a cabinet someplace or they don’t take them out of the Cellophane when they buy them from the stores so they’re not readily accessible,” Kearns says. “If you need to use that in an emergency, time is ticking away.”

Carry extra bulbs on board, Kearns says. And don’t leave the signals in their packaging, thinking you’ll get them out if necessary. It’s a whole lot more difficult to get one out with an emergency situation unfolding. Things can go from bad to worse.

“You need to use one of those signals and it’s stuck in some plastic, so now your hands get wet and you try to get it open and you’re bleeeding and now there’s an emergency and you still haven’t gotten the distress signal out,” Kearns says.

He recommends vessel safety checks each year for all different kinds of boats—from large ones that cruise on Lake Michigan to simpler fishing boats.

The checks are offered in most, if not all, places free of charge and take only about a half hour to an hour, Kearns says. Many marinas have specific days set aside for checks. Some examiners will make house calls.

And the best part? “It’s a penalty free process,” Kearns says.

An examiner will make a boat owner aware of safety violations, but won’t scribble out a ticket—unlike law enforcement authorities.

Interested in scheduling a check? Go online to safetyseal.net/GetVSC, plug in your ZIP code, and review the examiners located closest to you. Email addresses are provided.